Reboot

I must start by saying a big "Thank You" to everyone at CityMac of Asheville. I spent the better part of the day today with them as they helped me update my operating system, which required wiping the Hard Drive clean, reloading the original operating system, uploading from my external hard drive all of my work/files and then uploading the new operating system. For those of you who are not super technical, that may have been a lot of info. For those of you who are not super technical but have been through this type of deal, you know exactly what I am talking about only because after you have been through it, the experience is burned in your brain. 

So, if you have been hassled by people for not backing up your computer on an external hard drive, I am here to join the ranks of the hasslers. I have been faithfully backing up all of my work for the last 3 1/2 years and have never once truly needed that backup..... until today. Today, it was crucial. Today, it was the only thing that kept me from losing all of my writing and pictures and work files from the last 3 1/2 years. Today, I was thankful for the insurance known as an external hard drive. 

There are a few things in life I question and the need for insurance of various kinds has been one of those expenses that I have battled internally with, how much to invest monthly in insurance, what kind to get, how much do I really need, etc. But for the low cost of an external hard drive, I must say, it is the best insurance deal I have come across in my adult life. 

The whole point is, you never know when the need for a reboot will come. It could come at anytime, during any routine task, any mundane moment... a reboot could be necessary. This was my first time needing to wipe the ole hard drive clean and start over again, but jeez, I will never forget it! Though I tried to stay calm during the process, I sort of felt like I was at a hospital, asking the doctors (Apple Specialists) how my patient (my laptop) was doing! I guess this is the same way we get when car trouble comes along or the dentist says you need something other than the customary cleaning. 

It reminded me of the trouble and anxiety that is caused by being overly attached to certain things. Habits, routines, material possessions, certain relationships, our jobs. We can overly identify with these things. Like my computer is my way of connecting with friends near and far, of writing and working and updating my blog for crying out loud! Sometimes the tighter we grip these things or habits or circumstances, the more anxiety is produced when say, they break down or get taken to the shop. 

Maybe for some of us, New Years Eve is our "reboot", we automatically examine some of the things in our lives that aren't working quite right or that we would simply like to improve upon. Maybe by not holding onto some things so tightly and moving in some new directions. Well, if you're like most, we are approaching the end of February, the time when most New Years "reboots" fall on the wayside. But any day is good enough for a reboot, a fresh start. I will take the leap even further to say, that you should give yourself the external hard drive style back up safety net of grace. "Trust the process" is something that I say to anyone pursuing their art or nourishing their creativity. Anytime I coach or encourage my "art nurture" community, I try not to be so hands on in the specifics of telling them what to do or how to do what they want to do, but I try to encourage them to trust those inner nudge moments, where something is telling them to start sewing or gardening, despite their thoughts about not being able to, I tell them to start and then to learn and to trust the process. 

For some of you, your computer stories may have ending differently than mine did today, but these thoughts were in my head even before I knew the full ending of my story for the day. Even as I was staring at status bars on my computer screen showing the percentage of progress and quoting an inaccurate amount of time in minutes as to how long it would take, these thoughts were still in my head. Trust the process and rebooting isn't so scary.